The Children Wonder
by racle
Summary: Slightly AU-While Robin is away training with the True Master, the others realize that if they could learn Robin's skills and weapons and combine that with their own powers, they would be far more powerful than before! But it's hard to be the Boy Wonder.
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I don't own a thing in this story and have no money with which to pay for a lawsuit.

Author's Note: This story was inspired by the "Quest" episode on Cartoon Network. I thought, if Robin's skills and weapons allow him to face villains evenly despite his lack of powers, what would happen if the Titans, who have powers but no martial arts or utility belt, learned those skills? Wouldn't they then be so much more powerful…

Chapter 1: Revelation

It was a week since Robin had abruptly left Titans Tower to find the True Master. Robin had finally found the True Master's home, and she had agreed to train him. The Titans, meanwhile, had discovered Robin's costumes and equipment.

They were "Robining," as Starfire said, for the third day now. Raven was convinced to join, and the four Titans were enjoying themselves quite a bit, when…

The afternoon of the seventh day of Robin's absence, the alarm klaxons rang out at Titans Tower as Cinderblock was attacking a bank on the west side of the city. Moments later, a second alarm showed up—Plasmus had been sighted at the power plant!

"Alright, Robin and Robin, you take Cinderblock; Robin and I will take Plasmus," ordered Cyborg.

"Which two Robins?" asked Raven.

"Er…" None of the Titans had foreseen the difficulty that would come from pretending to be Robin.

"I suggest we just call each other by real names…" Raven said, solving the problem.

"Good idea," Cyborg nodded, "Beast Boy and Starfire get Cinderblock, Raven you're with me." Cyborg started running for the R-cycle.

"Wait a minute!" said Beast Boy excitedly, "We get to wear these costumes into battle?"

"We've got no time to change out of them, so let's hurry!" Cyborg shouted back.

"Cool!" was all Beast Boy could say.

Cyborg rode the R-cycle to the power plant while Raven flew. Within minutes they arrived at the plant.

Plasmus stopped his attack and stared, taken aback by the two Robins that had appeared before him. As far as he knew, there had always been one Robin. He looked from one to the other, slightly confused.

"Titans, go!" shouted Cyborg, drawing his bowstaff and twirling it around menacingly, managing only to hit himself in the head with the end of the staff. Raven wasted no time trying to impersonate Robin any further and simply attacked Plasmus with dark energy. Plasmus stumbled back and tried to retaliate by spitting out acid. Raven produced a black energy shield and the acid bounced off harmlessly.

Cinderblock was equally flummoxed to see the two people in Robin costumes before him. Beast Boy started to try out the various disks in his utility belt, finding that one kind of disk created smoke, another kind created ice, a third kind of disk caused electric shocks, and a fourth made an explosion. He threw a batarang as hard as he could and watched it miss Cinderblock, circle back around, and clip him in the hand. "Ow!" he said, shaking the hand that had been hit by his own projectile. Cinderblock saw this and started to laugh at "Robin's" ineptitude.

Cyborg realized that he didn't know how to handle Robin's equipment, so he started using his sonic cannon instead. He fired constantly at Plasmus, while Raven used any projectiles she could find to throw at Plasmus. Soon Plasmus was retreating into a building, and the Titans pursued.

Beast Boy tried the last Robin weapon he had—his bowstaff. He tried to twirl it around but struck himself in the head instead. Knowing better than to try again, he just ran at Cinderblock, raising his staff over his head for a big swing. Cinderblock punched low, effortlessly tossing Beast Boy down the street. Starfire was studying the bowstaff carefully—the only weapon that had any resemblance to anything she had seen on Tamaran—holding it in various positions, balancing it on her hand, experimentally twirling it a few times, even adjusting the length. She found a length that felt comfortable and charged Cinderblock, managing to twirl it around without hitting herself. Cinderblock punched again; she jumped over the concrete fist and slammed the bowstaff down at Cinderblock's shoulder. The staff broke from her great strength but it left a small mark on Cinderblock's shoulder. Discarding the staff, she fired starbolts at Cinderblock.

Plasmus stumbled back again after being hit by a wooden crate. He grabbed a piece of his body and lobbed it forward. The piece formed into a sludge crab and scuttled forward by itself, tackling Cyborg to the ground. Raven looked around and realized she was out of projectiles to throw. Everything that remained appeared to be important machinery that couldn't be just picked up. At last she thought of the disks in Robin's utility belt. Yes, those would be something to use as projectiles! She drew out several disks and threw them. One of the disks just happened to cross Cyborg's sonic cannon. As it had been an explosive disk, it was detonated by the sonic cannon in a massive Sonic Boom™ explosion. When it was over, the sludge was gone, replaced by an unconscious teenage boy in shorts.

Cyborg realized immediately what had happened. "Now there's an idea!" he said excitedly, "Why didn't I think of that!"

So it went for the next few days. The city became used to the sight of four Robins. Each day the Titans responded to the alarms as necessary, their innate powers making up for their shocking incompetence with Robin's weapons. If all else failed, Cyborg could perform the Sonic Boom in Robin's absence using the explosive disks on his utility belt and his own cannon.

Four days later, the Titans rushed to answer an alarm that had been caused by Overload's attempt to rob an electronics store. Once again the Titans, in Robin uniforms, got into the T-car and Cyborg drove at top speed to the store.

"If we're going to pretend to be Robin," Raven said on the way, "we might as well learn to use these weapons. Some of these gadgets seem like they'd be really useful if we knew how to use them…"

"Good idea!" Cyborg complimented, "Robin doesn't have superpowers, but his weapons allow him to fight enemies that do have powers. We do have powers, so if we add weapons and our powers together, we'll be invincible!"

End Chapter


	2. Resolution

Chapter 2: Resolution

The T-car pulled up to the electronics store. The doors flew open and the four Titans jumped out and ran towards the store. Overload had knocked out the store employees and a few customers and was just then making off with several pieces of equipment.

"Titans, go!" called Cyborg. Raven shielded the Titans from Overload's electricity, but Overload escaped the store before they could activate the sprinkler system. They looked around frantically for water sources, but there were, unfortunately, no fire hydrants or sewers in sight.

"That's it! Robin's freeze disks!" shouted Cyborg excitedly. He pulled out a few freeze disks from his utility belt and threw them at Overload. The ice formed all around Overload, soon melting to water under the heat and sparks of Overload's electric body. The other Titans followed suit with their own freeze disks. Overload cried out in pain as he shrank away in the water.

The next morning, the Titans (still dressed as Robin) were preparing for breakfast. Starfire moved into the kitchen and started opening cupboards looking for the ingredients for her Tamaranian recipe. Every single cupboard was completely devoid of food. With a sinking feeling she opened the refrigerator, finding only a massive, frightening blue mold inside. The mold did not move at all. Becoming less frightened with time, she shut the door of the refrigerator and tried the freezer instead. The freezer was empty as well.

Cyborg strode into the kitchen. Seeing her expression, he guessed what had happened.

"Are we all out of food again?" he asked, hoping against hope that they weren't.

Starfire nodded.

A hissing sound started emanating from the refrigerator. Instantly alert, Cyborg carefully approached the refrigerator, ready for battle. The door suddenly burst open, knocking Starfire out of the kitchen. The blue mold, which had burst the door, re-aggregated into a somewhat elliptical blob and sprang at Cyborg. Cyborg hurriedly pointed his sonic cannon at the attacking mold and fired. In a moment the mold had splattered all over the place.

"I think we should go out for pizza," Raven suggested. The others assented immediately.

About an hour later, the Titans had changed into spare Robin uniforms and were finally eating breakfast on the couch.

Robin entered the Tower and stealthily climbed up the stairs to the living room. As he approached the open door he overheard Raven saying: "The mask actually makes me feel…cool…"

_Mask?_ Robin thought, puzzled.

When he stepped into the room, the context of that comment became known to him. His teammates were dressed in his uniforms, apparently sharing a large pizza.

"Hey, pizza!" Robin said, sitting down alongside his teammates, who started slinking away.

"You know, the mask makes me feel cool too," he confided. It took several moments for the Titans to recover from their shock.

Robin finished the only piece that had been left.

"Anyway, what brought you into my room, without my permission, and made you go through my closet?" Robin asked nonchalantly, pretending that it wasn't an interrogation.

Three fingers—one metallic, one gray, and one orange—centered around Beast Boy like crosshairs.

Robin nodded. "Well Beast Boy, it seems like you might know a bit," he said. "Why did you go into my room?"

"Uh…" Beast Boy stuttered nervously, "I-I was curious about-those cool gadgets on your uniform…"

"Oh, and we realized something else," Cyborg covered, "We've seen you take on all those villains out there without any superpowers. It stands to reason that your weapons and skills must be really great. If we could only learn how to use them, we'd be invincible!"

"You're right!" Robin said, briefly excited about the idea. "But it'll take a lot of training. You'll work harder than we've ever done before. Are you up to the challenge?"

"Of course!" responded everyone in unison.

"Alright then, I'll teach you. Everyone be at the obstacle course 7:00 in the morning tomorrow!"

End Chapter


	3. Training Day

Chapter 3: Training Day

The next morning, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire were ready at the obstacle course outside the Tower, dressed in their Robin uniforms. A few minutes later, Robin met them outside.

"Okay, this is how we'll go. First, I'll go through the obstacle course and demonstrate how and when to use the weapons," Robin ordered, "Then you can try. Set the course to the lowest level for now, so that you don't get too dazzled."

Robin ran up to the beginning of the course. Cyborg pushed a few buttons on the computer console on the ledge overlooking the obstacle course, causing the big clock to count down from 10 seconds. When it reached zero Robin sprinted into the obstacles.

A disk launcher, triggered by Robin's stepping across a certain point, popped from the ground and fired Frisbee-shaped projectiles, one at a time, at him. Robin whipped out his bowstaff and batted away each projectile as it came. After demonstrating this for a while he drew an electric disk and lobbed it at the launcher, shorting it out.

As he proceeded down the valley, a few training robots jumped into the course and confronted him. He hurled a bird-a-rang at the first one, letting the bird-a-rang clip off the robot's hand and return to him. The second one was blown up by an explosive disk. The third was shorted out by another electric disk.

A massive chasm opened in the ground, over which a few rocks floated to provide the only path across. Robin jumped off the cliff towards the first one, pulling out a grappling hook as he did and hooking the side of the first rock. The hook retracted automatically, pulling him up to the rock. Robin jumped to the next one, which was nearby, or grapple-hooked to the rocks too far away to jump at.

After the chasm, more disk launchers came up. Robin disabled each with an explosive or electric disk, while ducking projectiles or blocking with his bowstaff. Steel fists began to emerge from the ground and grab for Robin. He jumped and rolled away from all of these. Laser turrets and missile launchers came next, accompanied by more disk launchers. Robin deflected the disks with his bowstaff, jumped away from the missiles, and ducked the lasers. All in all, Robin took only 3 minutes and 12 seconds through the course, and that was because he took his time to show the use of his weapons.

Robin lectured the other Titans: "So if you notice, I usually use the bowstaff on the unguided projectiles which go slowly and which you can see. If you can't see the attacks coming, like you can't with the lasers, dodge. Grappling hook to get across distances that can't be jumped," he showed them the device, "and these different disks. This one," he pulled out a smoke pellet, "produces smoke—usually used only to escape. This other one," he showed them the electric disk, "provides a jolt of electricity. It'll short out any robots or other electric machinery within a small radius. This is an explosive disk, a simple grenade that detonates on contact. The freeze disk produces ice. And," he showed them the bird-a-rang, "this returns to you after you throw it. It'll clip weapons out of an enemy's hands, mainly.

"Now, you try. Cyborg, you first."

Cyborg stood at the beginning end of the course and drew his bowstaff. The big clock counted down from 10 seconds. When it reached zero he charged forward. As he passed a certain point a disk launcher popped out of the earth and fired Frisbee-shaped projectiles, one at a time, at Cyborg. As he ran, Cyborg held his staff in front of him and tried to handle it to deflect the projectiles. He batted off six projectiles, but the seventh struck him in the foot, tripping him.

The launcher stopped and Cyborg got up again, continuing down the obstacle course. A few training robots jumped into the course and confronted him. Cyborg drew a bird-a-rang from his utility belt and threw it at point-blank range. Much to his disappointment the bird-a-rang narrowly missed the robot's body, going just to its right and circling around in a large arc. Cyborg jumped over the robot's punch, only to be caught by the returning bird-a-rang. Beast Boy couldn't help but snicker from his position up at the computer console; fortunately, Cyborg didn't notice.

"Cyborg," Robin called, "the bird-a-rangs return to you, remember!"

After trying four times, Cyborg had learned to catch the returning batarang; the fifth throw he managed to clip the lead robot in the neck. The robot fell over, deactivated. He tried out the other disks, which he managed to throw more accurately, destroying the other two robots. At the next stage of the obstacle course a massive hole opened in the ground. Cyborg used Robin's grappling hook and threw it at the first of several rocks floating over the pit—and missed. The hook flew past to the left of the rock, then reached its full length and fell down due to gravity until it hit the vertical side of the pit, under where Cyborg was standing. As the hook automatically rewound back to the handle, bouncing and scraping up on the rock face, it got caught on a small projection of rock. The force of the rewinding hook dragged at Cyborg unprepared. "AHHH!" he screamed as he was dragged by his hands over the edge before he could stop himself and toppled into the abyss. Fortunately, Cyborg remembered his extendable hand and fired it up at the cliff face. More adept with his own hand (connected to his brain by artificial nerves, so he could manipulate it easily) than with Robin's grappling hook, Cyborg succeeded in grabbing the edge of the cliff and hauling himself back up.

By this time the other Titans were howling with laughter.

"QUIET!" shouted Cyborg, angry and embarrassed. "That's an order!" Raven managed to stop herself quickly, but the others didn't have her self-control.

"Fine," Cyborg growled, "You try it, Beast Boy!"

Beast Boy strode up to the starting point of the obstacle course, trying his best to look confident. He drew his bowstaff and stood ready. Cyborg pushed a button on the console and the same disk launcher popped up. Beast Boy held his bowstaff in front of him, keeping it between himself and the launcher as he ran through the course, but the first disk narrowly missed his staff and caught him full in the chest, knocking him flat on his back. The launcher continued to pelt Beast Boy with more projectiles until Raven reached over and shut it down.

Beast Boy woke up and got to his feet and continued forward. He threw freeze disks one at a time at the robots, which all fell over, encased in ice. Now he got to the gaping pit. He threw out the grappling hook, determined to be more accurate than Cyborg, and succeeded in hooking on to the first rock. Unfortunately, the rope automatically rewound, pulling him off his feet and vaulting him over the first rock and into the abyss. The other Titans laughed at him in turn as he transformed into a sparrow to save himself from falling.

Raven had a better solution for the disk launchers. Instead of using her bowstaff, she simply dodged the projectiles. With the robots, she used the electric disks and destroyed them easily. When she missed with the grappling hook, she quickly caught the hook with her telekinesis and moved it onto the rock, and thus cleared the obstacle that had overcome two other Titans.

"Remember, try not to use your powers!" Robin reminded her.

More disk launchers followed, and she dodged barrages of projectiles while throwing her own explosive and electric disks back at the launchers, shorting some of them out and blowing up others. She tried a bird-a-rang once but found it hard to aim, so she went back to using the disks. Slowly but surely, the launchers and robots fell. Steel fists came from the ground and approached, but she evaded all of them. Laser turrets and missile launchers added to the mix shooting out non-lethal projectiles and beams. Not once did Raven use her bowstaff. In about five minutes she stood at the end of the course. Although she usually took much shorter a time, this was after all her first time using someone else's weapons through it.

It was Starfire's turn. The other three Titans watched her dodge the first disk launcher, just as Raven had, and then dispatch the first few robots with explosive disks. At the chasm obstacle, she correctly hooked the grappling hook to each rock in succession and got over it. At the next set of disk launchers she used the smoke pellets, blinding the control panel to her position and preventing Cyborg from aiming any more projectiles or robots. She had stumbled on an excellent tactic which rarely worked in the real world, and she continued, blinding all the laser guns and steel fists. Cyborg had been negligent in using nonlethal missiles, because they were too slow. Even though they could sense through the smoke, Starfire left them trailing far behind.

"Alright, it looks like we all need a lot of practice with these bird-a-rangs," Robin observed. "And, of course, we haven't really used the bowstaff on a live opponent. That's for tomorrow."

End Chapter.


End file.
